Love, the Mutt
by Alyx Leon
Summary: This is under heavy revision. For more details on the fic visit my profile.


**I know I shouldn't be startin' another story when I have five others that are incomplete, but I just had to write this. I've been reading a lot of Jakeward fanfics over Spring Break and I've now found myself wanting to do a Edward fanfic. I'd love to do a Jakeward, but for now I've been unable to come up with any good Jakeward ideas. So, y'all are just gonna have to settle for this story that just wouldn't leave my head all day during the day we came back to school after Break. **

**I don't own Twilight or the characters, I merely own Talia. **

**WARNING: Bella bashing may occur depending on my mood. I don't hate her, I just believe, as my dad says(yes, I got my dad to read the series. He's a big buff ex-navy dude who likes Twilight. Lol.), "Bella's a character that you love to hate."**

**One more thing I feel I need to stress before I start the story: in no way do I believe that all step-parents are abusive or just all around evil. I have a step-dad, who I mentioned earlier, who has raised me since I was six, so I see him as my dad and I had a step-mom who was the most amazing women(next to my mom) in the world, so I know for a fact that step-parents can be amazing and not evil as they are made out to be in stories. The one in this story is evil though, just because it makes for good drama. Sorry if I offend anyone :/ That is not my intention at all.**

"Everyone's been looking forward to your moving here," Sue Clearwater smiled at me as she drove on the road. The road to my new home. A new home that came with a new life of strangers and things that I had distanced myself from years and years ago. So, it wasn't really new. It was more like an old life. It was a new old life or old new life. I don't know. Either way, I was moving away to a town that I hadn't been to in forever and wanted nothing to do with. Not anymore at least. Moving to La Push definitely hadn't been my idea, I thought to myself as I barely registered what my aunt was saying. "I know you haven't seen everyone in years so I'll warn you now, they're all huge," she laughed. "They tower over all us old people now," she smiled, "but don't worry, they won't take advantage of that and bully you. They're all good kids."

I gave a small smile as she went on with the numerous good qualities of kids that I hadn't seen in a long time. She mentioned her kids, Leah and Seth Clearwater, and I fought back the urge to make a face. Leah and Seth were cousins that I hadn't seen since Seth was still considered the bratty annoying little brother and Leah was going through her 'I'm better than you because I'm already a teenager phase'. I couldn't stand either one of them then and I probably couldn't stand them now.

I barely remembered the rest of the kids that I used to hang with on the rez. I mostly remembered three people. My babysitter, my bestfriend, and my tormentor. Emily, Jacob, and Paul. Emi, as I had called her back when she had first started babysitting me when I was only three and I couldn't pronounce her name, had babysat me for as long as I could remember. When we would come to the rez, Mom was always busy with getting treatments or with just being too sick to get out of bed, so Emi volunteered to babysit me when I was three one day and it just continued on until I was ten. After I turned ten, I was somewhat old enough to not need a babysitter so she became the big sister I never had. Whenever I would come visit for breaks and vacations I would always find a way to see her. I did the same thing with Jacob. He was my bestfriend and my big brother. He watched out for me and took care of me and we always told eachother secrets, even though he could be a jerk. He always rubbed in my face the fact that he was two months older than me, and once he started he wouldn't let up. So, I would proceed to give him a beating, because back then he was smaller than me; like most boys are than girls at young ages, and it would seriously tick me off when he would make fun of our age difference.

Paul, on the other hand, was someone I always wished I could avoid. I did whatever I could to stay away from him and make sure he didn't notice me. He made it his purpose in life to make my life a living Hell. If I had ice cream, he'd knock it out of my hand. If I had a toy I really liked, he'd break it. If I was wearing something nice or had my hair done in a cute way, he'd get mud on me or pull on my hair until it was all messed up. He used to do the same thing to Jacob's older sister's, well that is until they told his mom and he got grounded for about a month. For some reason I never did anything about it. I guess I thought that one day it would just end and he would just go away. He never did though and I kept getting picked on until I finally left La Push and didn't come back. Well, until now.

I saw Auntie Sue glance down at her watch and I recalled that she had been doing that quite a bit, making me wonder where she needed to be in a rush. I didn't ask though, it wasn't my business. If it wasn't my business then I didn't need to know. I had learned that only a year ago after the funeral. _Her_ funeral. Nobody liked people sticking their noses in places it didn't belong, especially when you had just lost someone. It was what I had hated most about _her _death. People would come up and ask if I was okay, where I was staying, did I need help with stuff, did I have another parent who could watch on me, what was she like when she was alive, how had she been her last few days. I hated it. Half of the people there hadn't given a damn about my mom when she'd been alive, yet they had the audacity to come to her funeral and start prying into mine and her life and act like they'd given two shits about me or her. That was why I had distanced myself from everyone at the reception and the funeral, and why I had completely shutdown after it all to everyone who had come to me to give me their 'condolences' . I didn't want to be around people, especially fake people.

That was a very 'unhealthy habit' that I had. Not liking to be around people. Or at least that's what Eric, my 'friend', told me. He obviously really wasn't my friend. He was my youth post-trauma therapist or some shit like that. All I knew is that since mom had died and El Stupido had been sent to jail for abuse, I had been seeing _Eric_ regularly, at least twice a week for about three months and he saw my 'not liking fake people' as a bad thing. Whatever. He had been genuinely happy about my moving to La Push to live with my remaining family, since no one knew where in the Hell my 'father' was. He told me that since I wouldn't be able to see him face to face anymore that I would have to check-in at least once a week with a phone call. I was seriously pissed at him when he congratulated me on my moving to the rez. I had been hoping that when he had found out that I was moving that he would've fought for me to stay where I lived, arguing that I needed a stable environment that I already knew, that I needed to stay near him for our talks to be of any use, that it would be better to face my 'demons' instead of running. When I brought it up during our last meeting, he just said that I was looking for excuses to stay in a bad environment. Well, he could go to Hell.

I looked at my Auntie, my biological dad's sister-in-law, with what I hoped was an interested face as I studied my noticeably aging aunt and pretended as if I was listening to what she was saying. I hadn't seen her in about five years and she still looked generally the same, but I couldn't help but notice that she had many more wrinkles, worry lines, and gray hairs since the last time I had seen her. Her face seemed to have a permanent exhausted look to it, even when she smiled or laughed it never completely went away. I knew her stressed out look wasn't her fault though. Harry Clearwater, her husband and my biological uncle, had only recently died of a heart attack, leaving her with two teenage kids to continue to raise, and a seat on the Quileute counsel to fill. I knew that she probably hated all the people that had shown up to Uncle Harry's funeral and acted as if they cared. She'd also hated the people who had asked questions and offered help. She didn't have to say anything, I just knew that she'd hated all those people. That was why I hadn't asked at all about Uncle Harry since when I first found out he had died over the phone when all the legal stuff was still being settled with my living arrangements. I knew what she was feeling. So, I didn't ask.

I was curious as to what all else had happened in my five year absence from the reservation. I hadn't seen my cousins, Leah and Seth, or any of the other Quileute kids since I had stopped coming all together to the rez. I hadn't even spoken to them over the phone, written them letters or anything to keep in contact. I realized that they could all have become completely different people from who they had been as kids. Hell, I knew I wasn't the same innocent little naive girl who had visited La Push as a child. Familiar strangers is what I had taken to calling them, of course not in front of Auntie Sue, because that was exactly what they were. They were familiar because I had known them back when I had visited La Push on almost every single break and holiday. They were strangers because I hadn't been back to La Push since before Mom got really sick, the last time we'd visited being when I had been twelve.

I smiled at something that Sue had laughed at, knowing that that was what she wanted and wondered for a moment if she realized that my smile wasn't real. She didn't seem to notice my smile to be fake because she just kept talking and talking, leaving no real room for my input, which was fine by me. I didn't want to talk. Me talking equals bad. I was scared that if I started talking then I wouldn't be able to hold anything back. All that had happened since my mom and I had last been at the reservation when I was young would come spilling out in a flood of tears and emotions.

I nodded at something she said as I looked out the window. Tall, thick, green trees sprung up from everywhere, causing the world outside the car window to blur into nothing but smears of greens, browns, and some blues where the sky and the beach could be seen. My eyes were drawn to the forest moreso than to the water. I knew it wasn't really me being drawn to it, but my wolf. The thing that lurked inside of me all the time, waiting patiently for the moment when something would set me off and it could be free. The curse that that bastard of a man had left me. The curse that he had passed to me through his damned blood. The only damned thing that he had ever given me besides his name and his looks. The last thing he had given me before he left my mother and I to fend for ourselves all those years ago. It was his fault that I was here now, in a new town with familiar strangers who I was told missed me and were happy at the thought that I was returning to La Push. Had it not been for his damned blood running through me, I would still be at home with my room, my boyfriend, my friends, my school, _my_ life instead of a life that would consist of people that I hardly knew let alone understood me.

It was Tom's fault. It was Mom's fault too. If Mom hadn't had freakin' died and left me with that good for nothin' piece of shit boyfriend of hers then I wouldn't have ever been driving at fucking two in the morning to go pick up a shit-faced drunk Tom from a bar that he had been kicked out of. If I hadn't had to of driven that night I never would've seen that pale, red-headed woman attacking that man in the alley between the bar and a building next to it, then I would've never phased, I would still be human, and I would be at home with all my stuff and my own friends; instead of the reservation that my aunt was driving me to. It was Mom's fault for dying and leaving me. It was Tom's fault for being a stupid drunk and pissing me off on the drive back to 'his' home, actually my mom's house, so much that I phased. I learned later on, after a frantic call to my family in the rez, what I was and why I had phased. I was surprised to learn that all the old legends that we kids had learned when we were young were actually true. I was a werewolf. Apparently, being exposed to the stupid bloodsucker had triggered my ability to change, and my anger at El Stupido as I called Tom behind his back, had triggered the actual phasing itself.

I felt my body begin to tremble as I sat there in the car, thinking of that bastard. Both of those bastards. The man who was supposed to be my father, being the one who donated the sperm therefore earning himself the nickname the Sperm Donor and the man who pretended to be my father for appearances to please my mom and everyone who was watching.

"We're here," my aunt announced to me, arriving in front of a cute little house. I blinked. It didn't look like her house or at least not by what I had remembered. Then, again my memory wasn't the most reliable. After all, I hadn't been to her house in forever.

"Auntie Sue, when did you move?" I asked, tilting my head to the side in question, my rage all forgotten for the moment.

She gave a small laugh as she parked but didn't turn off her car. "Oh, this isn't my house. We're here to introduce you to the pack. This is kind of their hang out. Come on, I'll show you. They're all waiting inside for their newest packmate," she smiled, though her face seemed to tense at the word pack. So... she wasn't too keen on the whole shapeshifting wolf thing either. Interesting... I'd have to find out at some point as to why, I thought as I grabbed my messenger bag purse and slung it across my chest when she got out of the car and started walking towards the door. I followed close behind her, my nose picking up the scent of other 'wolves. I felt the wolf inside of me want to howl in joy to have found a pack, but I quickly squandered the joyous wolf. She wasn't allowed to voice her opinion at all. The wolf in me had to stay silenced and locked up at all times. She wasn't allowed outside at all.

Auntie Sue opened the front door to the house and the scent of wolf, guys, and food hit me at once. I crinkled my nose at the intense smell. I still hated my strong sense of smell because of it's connection to the wolf and I hated how it intensified unnecessary smells.

"Auntie Sue!" came a group of voices at once when we got inside the little house. I tensed at the sight of all the people who were crowded in the small kitchen area, most of whom were guys except for two girls; one who was sitting at the table with her arms folded over her chest and the other with her back to everyone because she was the one who was cooking. My wolf was getting excited again and I needed to calm her. The sight of 'her' pack had awakened her again and apparently strengthened her because I was having difficulty pushing her to the back of my mind and out of the way. _Back down, _I growled in my mind and I fought for dominance over my brain for a moment before the wolf reluctantly complied.

"Hey, guys, this is Talia. Talia this is the pack," Auntie Sue said gesturing towards all the people who were in the crowded room and introducing me, glancing at her watch again briefly.

'Hey' and ''Sup' came the replies to Auntie Sue's introduction. Numerous tanned hands waved in greetings to me and I gave a polite smile back and a small wave hi along with a soft hello. Holy, I thought to myself. How were all of them fitting in the small room? There were four massive males sitting around at the kitchen table, the fifth man was standing by the kitchen counter, an air of authority around him. _Alpha, _I felt my wolf more than heard my wolf's thought. I mentally nodded. It was Sam, the alpha of the pack, the guy I would have to answer to. There were also two girls in the room besides my aunt and myself. The girl who I recognized as my grouchy cousin Leah, who always seemed to have something sticking up her ass, was sitting in a chair at the table, her arms folded over her chest and her eyes on the table in an intense glare. Ya, she was the same old pissy Leah. The other girl was standing at the stove, mostly blocked by Sam, and I couldn't help but feel as if I knew her, though I couldn't see her.

"Okay, well, I'm sorry to leave you so soon Talia but I have to take Leah to a doctor's appointment so I need to leave. I'll see you at the house. Sam can give you a ride," she said hurriedly as she checked her wristwatch and motioned for the girl who was sitting with her arms crossed to stand up and leave. Before I even got a chance to reply to what she had said, Auntie Sue left with Leah, leaving me in a house full of familiar strangers and the urge to just run away. _No! _I wanted to cry out to my aunt. She couldn't leave me here with these people! But I couldn't seem to be able to find my voice in time to say something in protest. No, she couldn't leave me. I only vaguely remembered half of the people in front of me and I really didn't want to have to interact with any of them. I was doomed.

I gave a smile as each of my new 'packmates' introduced themselves. Sam, Paul, Jared, Quil, Embry, now that I was seeing them all again I remembered all of them from when we were younger but was amazed at how huge they were. Auntie Sue hadn't been kidding. They all had to at least be 5'11" and their bodies seemed to be made of nothing but sheer muscle. They all had similar tan skin and short black hair. I fit right in. Well, I fit in except for the fact that my black hair was longer than shoulder length and had streaks of purple and green in it. Besides that little difference I fit in. After all, I was the daughter of a Clearwater, though the daughter of the estranged Clearwater brother that I knew most of the family tried to act as if never existed, I was a Clearwater nonetheless. I knew that I shared their tanned skin and dark hair as I knew I shared with them the curse. Sharing all that didn't mean anything though. I was still in a room full of people who were familiar strangers. "Hi," I said in an overall greeting to the large group of males.

"Welcome to the pack, Talia," Sam Uley said and opened his arms in a gesture to show welcome. I remembered very little about Sam Uley except that when I was around nine and he had been sixteen, he had been all over Leah. There had even been rumors going around that he had been planning on asking her to marry him. It seemed that was not to be the case anymore.

"Thank you," I said smiling again, holding the strap to my purse. I was curious as to what had happened between Sam and Leah. There obviously was nothing between them anymore by what I had just seen before Auntie Sue took Leah. It had been obvious that Leah had not wanted to be in the house or even in the same room as Sam.

"Hey, what's up with your hair?" Paul asked gesturing towards my head from the table that he was sitting at.

Sam gave him a look. "Paul, don't be rude," he snapped.

I grinned despite my panic at being in a room full of familiar strangers. So, Paul hadn't changed at all either. Alright, I was game. "It's okay, Sam. I remember now that Paul was the ass of the group and that no girls liked him because of that," I smiled sweetly at the hot-headed male.

Paul glared at me. It reminded me of when we were younger. I had never liked him to begin with. He could be such an ass but he would never apologize for what he had done. I had been nice when we were younger but Paul would not get away with asshole comments now.

"Finally, someone who can shut Paul up," Quil laughed at his friend. "And another girl too," he added.

"Finally, another girl. Maybe now Leah won't be such an uptight bitch," Embry grinned and the others laughed at his comment before Sam gave them a stern look, shaking his head.

"Aw, don't say stuff like that about Leah," a familiar voice said from the kitchen. The voice was so sweet, so familiar, so comforting. It reminded me of much easier times, back before I knew what was wrong with mom, back before El Borracho Stupido had shown up, back before I found out I wasn't human. I turned to see the owner of the voice...

**So, y'all like? Sorry if it sucks so far, I'm hopin' it'll get better. In all honesty I don't like this chapter. Lol. I stayed up 'till like two in the morning writing it when I had to wake up at five thirty to get ready for school. :p I don't know how many revisions this stupid chapter went through. Fanfic was not wanting to be cooperative and would not let me post a new story. So, it took me a while to post this story. This chapter is necessary, in my opinion 'cause it's the introduction to Talia as a whole. Believe me, it gets a whole Hell of a lot better. And Edward will probably showin' up in the third or fourth chapter. Reviews plx :) Great motivation. Seriously, they are.**


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